sigdiamond2000:I'm typing this from outside of a Best Buy in Ashtabula, Ohio, so I'm getting a kick out of these replies. I've been camped out here for four days now, singing songs and breaking bread with my fellow Black Friday Rangers. There's a sense of comraderie and fellowship on this sidewalk that I don't expect you cynics to understand.

I'm 6th in line, so I'm pretty much gauranteed a 35" Vizio 750p flat screen for $159. That's a great price for a great product and if you don;t think it's worth it, you need to get over yourselves.

LOL. I'd love to have had regular updates showing the deterioration of the situation.

"Day 5: Food is becoming scarce and moral is at an all time low. Some are claiming there's talk of cannibalism, but I hope these are just rumors and speculation brought on by hunger, fatigue, cold and lack of sleep. One fellow shopper has restorted to drinking his own urine. The customers at the adjoining Barnes & Noble eye us with derision and contempt."

sigdiamond2000:I'm typing this from outside of a Best Buy in Ashtabula, Ohio, so I'm getting a kick out of these replies. I've been camped out here for four days now, singing songs and breaking bread with my fellow Black Friday Rangers. There's a sense of comraderie and fellowship on this sidewalk that I don't expect you cynics to understand.

I'm 6th in line, so I'm pretty much gauranteed a 35" Vizio 750p flat screen for $159. That's a great price for a great product and if you don;t think it's worth it, you need to get over yourselves.

Assuming you're not full of it, I am so waiting to see what you have to say on Saturday when you find out that you've been had.

In electronics, the most "amazing" Black Friday deals, such as TVs and tablets for under $100, are horrible, cheap Chinese knock-offs that you can buy any day of the year online for the same price if you're willing to wait for them to ship from China.

But people line up and act like animals to get cheap crap like this:

And let me remind you: RCA and Magnavox don't make TVs anymore... They buy cheap Chinese crap and slap their name on it. Same goes for Westinghouse, Mathis, Element, and most store brands like Insignia and Hisense (Walmart store brand). They're generally going to be crappy.

When it comes to tablets, stick with these brands:SamsungMicrosoftAppleASUSAcerKindleNookMEEP! (for kids)HPLenovoGoogle (Nexus)

And that's it, unless you confirm that a particular model is really LG or Vizio (such as Zenith, which is Vizio). And let me point out that Vizio, while not completely bad, is definitely not going to be as nice as a Samsung, Sony, Sharp, or even most LGs.

If the store is selling an Element, Seiki, Westinghouse, or RCA TV for cheap, there's a reason for it: It IS cheap. It WILL die a lot sooner than the competition. With TVs you really do get what you pay for.

When I was a kid I worked in Woolworths (UK version, it was like Target). Every staff member's employment agreement stated we had to work Christmas Eve for a few hours after closing, which was also pointed out by the interviewer when you went for the job. I always wondered why, until Dec 24.

I turned up to find the stockroom was literally filled with newly delivered crates for sale merchandise stamped with a massive label "Do not sell until Dec 26". Pretty much every box was filled with cheap crap. The staff had four hours to basically empty the entire shop floor and re-stack the shelves with the "Sale Stock" so we could reopen on Boxing Day ready for "The Sale".

tcaptain:The worst example of this was last year when Zellers (in the US, KMart would be a close approximation) went out of business up here in Canuckistan. The "Final Liquidation - Everything MUST go! Up to 90% off" signs went up a week before the cut off day.

My office was right next to a location so it was fairly easy to check out. I used to like their "Hunt Club" Khakis, I had bought some reasonably recently and knew their prices went from 34.99 regular to around 20 bucks on sale.

The liquidation price? 69.99!!!! The regular price was marked at 187 dollars. I can tell you Zellers has NEVER farkin sold a pair of pants for almost 200 bucks.

It was insane, even the video games...nothing less than 20 bucks with "regular" prices in excess of 80 to 90 dollars.

How they go away with this shiat I will never know.

I've been to a few going out of business sales and observed tr same thing. They hire an outside company to come in and operate the sale. All the good stuff has been sold or relocated before the sale starts and the "regular" prices are highly inflated.

Ponzholio:I don't think I've ever purchased anything from Kohl's without the 30% off coupon AND Kohl's cash. I know full well it's a marketing gimmick but I'll be damned if I don't leave that place without some sort of self-accomplishment.

JC Penny's last year tried to bring sanity to this by saying "you know what? our sales and coupons are bullshiat, let's just lower the everyday prices and stop all this nonsense"

they got SLAUGHTERED by stupid consumers who were angry they'd "raised prices" by discontinuing all those coupons

Similarly Wal-Mart generally doesn't have the lowest prices on things, except for 200 core items they know everybody generally knows the price of and certain electronics that are easy to compare across stores (though the model made for Wal-mart uses inferior components typically). They do this to make you THINK they are cheaper than other places on everything

and for all my holier than though attitude I'm guilty of this too. Used to feel like a failure if the "you saved" line on my grocery recipet wasn;t at least as much as the "you spent" one.

But then I joined Costco for other reasons and started shopping there and noticed my overall grocery bill was MUCH lower even though I wasn;t leveraging every coupon sale and markdown sticker like a madman. (course now there is a "grocery outlet" near me where I can pick up $4/box organic oatmeal for 3 boxes/$1 and wheels of $15/lb cheese for $1.99/lb and 4/$1 four packs of Greek Yogurt) the sickness is back a little)

Wow, it doesn't get anymore obvious than this. Is this still news to ANYONE?

Here is a hint, retailers are not in the business of selling things, they are in the business of making money. If it does not make them money, they won't do it. Just keep that in mind.

Hence TFA is "news" (meaning new info to some), here I'll list few more things retailers do that might be news to you too

- The milk and egg's will be as far away from the door as possible. They want you to "see" as many things as possible before you get to the things that you must buy on a regular basis.

- The 2nd shelf from the bottom is where you will find most of the "kid's stuff". For the simple reason that it is at the eye level for kids, and if they see it, they will start nagging to get it.

- Stuff at the checkout aisle cost way more than stuff just a few feet away.

- the stuff nearest to you will have the earliest expiration date (not necessarily a bad thing).

- That expiration date is a wild guess, things may get worse way before it or be perfectly OK to consume way after it. Use your judgement before throwing anything out, or don't keep eating things even if it tastes funny just because it is still within expiration date.

- Retailers (as well as manufacturers) changes the expiration date on things and put them right back on.

- Expired vanilla ice creams are used to make chocolate ice creams all the time (enough with expiration date)

- If a product is easier for you to find (sitting in the center walkway), retailers are making bigger profit from it.

- If you do not need an item to begin with, buying things off of sale is not a good idea.

The worst example of this was last year when Zellers (in the US, KMart would be a close approximation) went out of business up here in Canuckistan. The "Final Liquidation - Everything MUST go! Up to 90% off" signs went up a week before the cut off day.

My office was right next to a location so it was fairly easy to check out. I used to like their "Hunt Club" Khakis, I had bought some reasonably recently and knew their prices went from 34.99 regular to around 20 bucks on sale.

The liquidation price? 69.99!!!! The regular price was marked at 187 dollars. I can tell you Zellers has NEVER farkin sold a pair of pants for almost 200 bucks.

It was insane, even the video games...nothing less than 20 bucks with "regular" prices in excess of 80 to 90 dollars.

I don't think this articles tells the whole story. When I worked retail, I was able to look up the store's cost of items, and for the front page Black Friday deals, most were being sold below cost, particularly electronics where the margins are razor thin to begin with. The idea being that they are willing to take a real loss on a few items in order to increase traffic into the store to buy other items with more traditional retail markup.

Ponzholio:I don't think I've ever purchased anything from Kohl's without the 30% off coupon AND Kohl's cash. I know full well it's a marketing gimmick but I'll be damned if I don't leave that place without some sort of self-accomplishment.

Bed Bath and Beyond doesn't do cash AFAIK, but their 20% off coupon is a necessity as well. It's the cheapest place I've found to buy razor blades, believe it or not, if I have one of those coupons.

/Please tell me if you know of a place to get inexpensive Mach 3 blades

I don't think I've ever purchased anything from Kohl's without the 30% off coupon AND Kohl's cash. I know full well it's a marketing gimmick but I'll be damned if I don't leave that place without some sort of self-accomplishment.